CRETE - A Year in Review

Evertruckerr, do you have that spreadsheet to share?, I am a newbie going to be going to school soon and hope to start with a company. It appears Crete does not hire newbies, so who knows maybe in a year or 2 we may work together.

 

Rioman,
FYI Crete does hire newbees if your school is on their approved list.
My husband started with them seven weeks ago right out of school.
Call one of their recuiters and find out if the school you are looking at going to is on their list.

 

Well, the Snackbar luck has come back. After Freightliner got my a/c fixed...right(I hope). I was offered a load from Monroe, LA to a suburb of Cleveland, OH...And it didn't load until Saturday morning, so that gave me a reset, and a 1300 mile weekend. The bad news, it ran through the area where that Yazoo City, MS tornado went through..only a half day later. I55 was still shut down, the MSP routed us up US51, 2-lanes are easier to clear than an interstate where there were numerous vehicles wrecked as well. There were some trees that would take 3 of us to wrap our arms around, just twisted off 5-10 feet above the ground. Anyway, got to my delivery Monday, and waited...and waited... it took 3 hours to unload 9 rolls of paper. While waiting, I was pplanned on a load out of Ashtabula, OH to Morton, IL and a 2nd stop to a suburb of Milwaukee...finals out Thursday. Not great, but still gives me 2100 miles by Thursday so I rolled w/it. Enroute to pick up my load, a winged creature of some sort (pigeon I think) attempted suicide on my passenger windshield when I drove under one of the many overpasses on the bypass around Cleveland. I say attempted because our trucks don't go fast enough to kill bugs/birds...they're bug-bruisers. Anyway, he/she(I can't tell the difference between a he and a she pigeon)flipped me 'the human' (since birds can't flip you the bird...that would be redundant) and flew off rubbing it's head. Then while unloading stop 1 in Morton...when I slid the tandems to the rear to give the receiver a better angle to unload...the left side slider rail on the trailer bowed down far enough I could stick a finger or two between rail and the cross members...turns out there were only a few weld's holding the stupid thing on...so, since I needed a windshield, breakdown convinced me that the remaining welds would hold, and I was to head to Ottawa for repairs. But... because it's still loaded, Ottawa can't fix it totally...they just tacked it for now, and after empty, I 'must' be routed to a trailer shop for proper repairs...geez... 2 weeks in a row I'll be down... I wanta' go home

 

Thanks for the info, do you have a break down of the newbie pay from per mile down to bonuses?

I left a message on the recruiter line today.

 

Hi,

How long does driver training last for?

 

yes would be good to find out the rates for nubies

 

8 weeks for driving school grads

 

I can never get hold of a recruiter I always get that they are busy leave a message blah blah and you will be contacted in 1-3 business days. I have left messages 3 times the past 2 weeks still no callback. Anyone have a better number then 800-988-2221?

 

You crack me up, SS. This one had me laughing out loud.

 

Keep trying. I left two messages; one last Thursday and one today, and finally got a call back this afternoon.

I've been a "wannabe" for well over two years now, and I'm finally ready to jump in. Well, I've been ready for a long time, but now my finances are ready as well. I've gone back and forth considering which company to start with. I used to think Crete would be the best choice, then several other companies took its place. Now I'm back to thinking Crete is one of my best options.

I'll be attending Central Tech in Drumright, OK, which is a school that Crete approves. For now, I'm going to keep making phone calls, keep researching, and keep checking the forum.

Andrew

P.S. - The recruiter I spoke with did seem aware of this forum (or at least some forum) and did recommend them as an educational tool.